Cieszyn Silesian dialect

Cieszyn Silesian
Teschen Silesian
cieszyńsko rzecz
Native toPoland (Silesian Voivodeship, Cieszyn & Bielsko), Czech Republic ([Frýdek-Místek & Karviná districts)
RegionCieszyn Silesia
EthnicitySilesians (Vlachs)
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Cieszyn dialect (7) within Silesian dialects (according to Alfred Zaręba)
A Cieszyn Silesian dialect speaker, recorded in the Czech Republic.
Rest in peace grave inscription in Cieszyn Silesian dialect.

The Cieszyn Silesian dialect or Teschen Silesian dialect[2] (Cieszyn Silesian: cieszyńsko rzecz;[3] Polish: gwara cieszyńska or narzecze cieszyńskie; Czech: těšínské nářečí; Silesian: ćeszyński djalekt) is one of the Silesian dialects. It has its roots mainly in Old Polish and also has strong influences from Czech and German and, to a lesser extent, from Vlach and Slovak. It is spoken in Cieszyn Silesia, a region on both sides of the Polish-Czech border. It remains mostly a spoken language. The dialect is better preserved today than traditional dialects of many other West Slavic regions.[4]

On the Czech side of the border (in Trans-Olza) it is spoken mainly by the Polish minority,[5] where it was and still is strongly influenced mainly by Czech (mainly lexicon and syntax).[6] It is used to reinforce a feeling of regional solidarity.[7]

Polish and Czech linguists differ in their views on the classification of the dialect. Most Czech linguists make a distinction between the dialect as spoken in Czechia and in Poland, and classify the dialect spoken on the Czech side of the border as a "mixed Czech-Polish dialect",[8] a designation already used in the 19th century. Polish linguists tend to classify the language on both sides of the border under the Silesian dialects of Polish.[9] Although the dialect has its roots mainly in Polish (phonology and morphology are consistently shared with Polish),[6] the diachronic development of the dialect is of a transitional nature.[4]

  1. ^ "Ethnologue report for language code: szl". Ethnologue. Languages of the World.
  2. ^ Hannan 1996
  3. ^ Słownik gwarowy Śląska Cieszyńskiego. Wydanie drugie, poprawione i rozszerzone. Jadwiga Wronicz (edditor), Ustroń 2010, ISBN 978-83-60551-28-8
  4. ^ a b Hannan 1996, p. 191
  5. ^ Hannan 1996, p. 162
  6. ^ a b Hannan 1996, p. 129
  7. ^ Nekvapil, Jiří; Sloboda, Marián; Wagner, Petr. "Multilingualism in the Czech Republic". Nakladatelství Lidové Noviny. pp. 94–95. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  8. ^ Hannan 1996, pp. 85-86
  9. ^ Hannan 1996, p. 88